YALLA - WASHINGTON, DC -Under the claims of fighting terrorists, both Russian and Syrian regime war planes struck Syria’s Idlib today. This comes of the heels of a large military buildup of Assad and his allies forces and threats to liberate the region from rebel control.Idlib is home to an estimated 3 million people, half of whom are displaced from different parts of Syria. The region is considered a zone of de-escalation, one that is refuge to people fleeing conflict elsewhere in the country and should be safe from any kind of military attack.IDC urges the international community, particularly the United States to prevent a Russian, Iranian, Assad attack against the region. An attack and invasion of Idlib would spark a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions and send a new, massive wave of refugees into neighboring countries, destabilizing the region further. Assad, with Iranian and Russian help “ continues to implement a scorched earth policy as he seeks to regain control of the whole country. The result is immense human suffering, a collapsed economy, an international refugee crisis, and worst of all, half a million dead. Christians, Druze, Sunni, and Shia are all victims of a continued conflict in Syria, absent of any political solution, and terrorism will remain, threatening the future of the country and US national security” says IDC Executive Director Philippe Nassif.The Christian population continues to dwindle in Syria as the war rages and economy continues to falter, and the survival of the population along with all other religious minorities in this ancient land is at great risk unless the international community takes a lead in bringing peace to the country and ends the daily human rights violations that plague the population of Syria.

(Vatican Radio) On Friday, May 30, the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum " will host a coordination meeting between the Catholic charitable organizations that operate in the context of the Syrian crisis. The meeting, in which they have given their support to 25 organizations operating in Syria and in the Middle East, will be structured in two phases: during the morning , after the introduction of Cardinal Robert Sarah, president of " Cor Unum , "who will coordinate the work , there will be a report from the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.Speakers will include Archbishop Mario Zenari , Apostolic Nuncio to Syria, and Bishop SE Antoine Audo , president of Caritas Syria. Finally, the activities carried out at the information office in Beirut, set up last year to collect and distribute data on the work of Catholic organizations will be presented. In the

Russia urged the UN Security Council to discuss the situation in Syria’s Christian majority town of Kessab, after Al-Qaeda-linked militants reportedly attacked the town, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.“The UN Security Council should discuss the situation in Kessab and give it a principled evaluation,” it stated. “We condemn extremists’ actions in Syria. We believe that the Syrian government and the opposition should join efforts to eradicate terrorism on the Syrian land.”

KESAB, SYRIA - The Armenian populated villages of Kesab (Kessab, Kasab), Syria were the target of three days of brutal cross-border attacks from Turkey by al-Qaeda affiliated armed bands, which have cost 80 lives and forced the civilian population of the area to flee for to neighboring hills, with many seeking safe-